Arts news, exhibitions, events, biennials and conferences, calls, resources and opportunities, technical information, exhibitions and reviews. London Edition.
From 31 May to 24 August the Rembrandt House Museum is staging an exhibition of works by the German graphic artist Horst Janssen (1929-1995). Janssen was a virtuoso draughtsman with an extraordinarily expressive handling of line. Although his work is largely figurative, he never slavishly imitated the truth. The reality in his portraits, self-portraits, landscapes, still lifes and erotic scenes is always distorted and dramatized. He was a great admirer of Rembrandt and often took his inspiration from the master's work, particularly in his many self-portraits and landscapes. The hundred finest etchings have been selected from Janssen's huge oeuvre, supported by some of the highlights among his drawings. This is the first exhibition in the Netherlands to be devoted to Horst Janssen's prints.
Horst Janssen
Janssen is one of the greatest printmakers of the twentieth century. Dozens of monographs have been published about him. Horst Janssen is as famous in Germany as he is unknown outside its borders. Without doubt this has to do with his absolutely individualistic position in the post-war art climate. The visible world was always the point of departure for his work. This meant he was diametrically opposed to the spirit of the modernist schools in the second half of the twentieth century, where abstraction predominated. Now that figuration is an enduring feature of contemporary art, modern artists like Horst Janssen, whose work is more figurative, are at last getting the appreciation they deserve. In 1999 the Horst Janssen Museum, dedicated solely to his work, opened in Oldenburg, where he spent his youth and where he was buried in 1995. In Hamburg, where he was born in 1929, and where he continued to live and work after the war, there is a separate room in the Kunsthalle where his work is on permanent display. The exhibition in the Rembrandt House has been organized in close collaboration with these two museums.
Janssen was a virtuoso draughtsman with a highly individual use of line. This virtuosity and expressiveness is perhaps seen to greatest effect in his prints. It is therefore not surprising that Janssen regarded himself first and foremost as a printmaker, specifically an etcher. Like Rembrandt, Janssen experimented throughout his life with the expressive possibilities presented by the technique. On one of his prints, a reworking of an etched self-portrait by Rembrandt, he added the telling inscription: nach 'Ihm' (after 'him'). We may infer from this that he revered Rembrandt as his hero. Janssen was certainly also influenced by a great many other artists of the past-Callot, Segers, Goya, Füssli, Friedrich, Utamaro, Hokusai, Meryon, Klinger, Munch, Schiele, to name just a few-but to him Rembrandt was more than an admired exemplar: he saw him as a soul-mate. The Rembrandt House Museum is thus an entirely fitting venue for the first exhibition ever devoted to Janssen's graphic work in the Netherlands. His kinship with Rembrandt is most clearly expressed in his many self-portraits and landscapes, and it is for this reason that the works in the exhibition have been selected primarily from these areas of his immense oeuvre. Three essays in the publication accompanying the exhibition explore the areas where the two artists come together. sitemap http://www.horst-janssen-museum.de/index.php?id=3&L=1
BONNETS & BOATS BY CHRISTINA HENRI - ART RE-TELLING CONVICT WOMEN’S STORIES
Bonnets & Boats will re-connect convict women’s history and their stories to the English settlement of Australia. It will engage descendants of convict women transported to Australia and allow them to tell their stories handed to them from generation to generation. Christina Henri will be running a series of cloth bonnet making workshops with descendants of convict women from the local community in Parramatta. These bonnets will feature in the exhibition at Parramatta Artists Studios and other exhibitions spaces across Australia. Each bonnet will commemorate the life of a convict woman.
When: 5 September – 10 October 2008 Workshops: 11am – 4pm, 16 August, 11am – 4pm, 23 August and 11am – 4pm, 6 September 2008 (Max 20 per workshop, bookings essential). Where: Parramatta Artists Studios, 45 Hunter St Parramatta Cost: Free Enquires and bookings: Parramatta Artists Studios on 9687 6090
If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution launches its new, third edition. The departure point for this edition is to explore a conceptual framework of the masquerade. This can be read in the light of If I Can’t Dance...’s continuing exploration of paradigms such as performativity, theatricality and feminism(s), produced in collaboration with artists in the form of experimental sketches, performances, readings, exhibitions, enactments etc., since its inception in 2005.
By jumping into the intractably spectacular topos of performance and theatre-based regimes, If I Can’t Dance... through its unfolding production methodology probes, embraces and even sometimes collapses certain tenets of display and legibility employed in the visual arts, aiming to articulate a politics of perception. Key to this practice is working with a select number of artists (in repertory) over a longer period and generating multiple spaces, contexts and possibilities for them to robustly engage and produce new work and insight into the emergent subject matter.
Over the next two years, If I Can’t Dance… will have manifestations in Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Bilbao, Dublin and Eindhoven, collaborating with Overgaden Institute of Contemporary Art, de Appel arts centre, Sala Rekalde, Project Arts Centre and the Van Abbemuseum. Keren Cytter, Jon Mikel Euba, Olivier Foulon, Suchan Kinoshita, Joachim Koester and Sarah Pierce are invited to produce new projects that will be developed within the time frame of two years, and presented at the subsequent moments when If I Can’t Dance… will visit the institutions mentioned.
Edition III looks at forms of masking, mimicry, parody and assimilation. Areas for exploration include the construction of subjectivity, modes of formalized and ritualized behaviour, codes of contemporary transgressive and normative action, authenticity and falseness etc. In addition to the masquerade as subject matter in art, attention is directed to its manifestations in the methodologies of art making, manifesting themselves in for instance choreographies of detour, suspension and metonymy, activating that what is latent. As such, If I Can’t Dance... aims to articulate in art’s production and reception both, the apparent narrative, and that which remains illegible or invisible, as vital actors.
The prologue of Edition III will take place in Copenhagen. In a day-long programme in Overgaden, the artists involved will present their ideas on the projects to be developed. In Karriere Bar the stage is set for a performance of Planningtorock. In the University of Copenhagen, on the occasion of the conference Interregnum (August 20-24) organised by the university in collaboration with Performance Studies international, Frederique Bergholtz and Annie Fletcher will give a lecture on If I Can’t Dance… and its development.
PROGRAMME
FRIDAY, AUGUST 22, 14:00-16:00 - UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN Lecture by Frederique Bergholtz and Annie Fletcher on If I Can’t Dance... Address: University of Copenhagen, Department of Arts and Cultural Studies, Room 22.0.47, Blixens Vej 1, 2300 Copenhagen S (+45) 35 32 92 74 info@interregnum.dk, http://www.interregnum.dk
SATURDAY, AUGUST 23, 12.00-20.00 - OVERGADEN Prologue Edition III. Presentations: Keren Cytter, Jon Mikel Euba, Olivier Foulon, Suchan Kinoshita, Joachim Koester and Sarah Pierce. Moderator: Lars Bang Larsen. Address: Overgaden. Institute of Contemporary Art, Overgaden Neden Vandet 17, 1414 Copenhagen K (+45) 32 57 72 73, info@overgaden.org, http://www.overgaden.org
SATURDAY, AUGUST 23, 22.30-23.00 - KARRIERE Performance by Planningtorock Address: Karriere contemporary art & social life, Flaesketorvet 57-67, 1711 Copenhagen V, (+45) 33 21 55 09 info@karrierebar.com, http://www.karrierebar.com
A complete programme of events and ticket and reservation information is available at http://www.ificantdance.org
EPISODE 1 – DE APPEL Episode 1 will take place in de Appel arts centre in Amsterdam, from September 26 – November 9 2008.
TEAM
Since the beginning of 2008, If I Can’t Dance… has established itself as an independent foundation with a permanent production base in Amsterdam. The team consist of Frederique Bergholtz (Financial and Artistic Director), Annie Fletcher (Artistic Director), Maaike Gouwenberg (Production / Curator), Claud Biemans (Finances), Marcel van den Berg (Communication) and Flora Lysen (Research).
PARTNERS EDITION III
COLLABORATING INSTITUTIONS Overgaden, København – DK; de Appel arts centre, Amsterdam – NL; Sala Rekalde, Bilbao – ES; Project Arts Centre, Dublin – IE; Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven – NL
It's the reason I breath honey, It's the reason I walk It's the reason I sleep and the reason I talk Yeah but soon my devotion will all be repaid For codine will kill me honey, thats the bargin that we've made and it's real, lord it's real yeah, one more time
For what is a woman, what has she got If not herself, then she has naught To say the things she truly feels And not the words of one who kneels The record shows I took the blows And did it my way
International symposium on Neo-Censorship: 18-20 September
The main objective of the International symposium on Neo-Censorship: Threats to the Open Book is to examine on an international level the erosion of free expression. The concept of neo- censorship refers to a type of censorship that is not imposed by any state authority but by private parties. It is becoming increasingly evident that there are growing threats to the freedom of expression and the free dissemination of ideas and texts, which are being kept on a tight rein or even deterred by censorship-like phenomena. These include self-censorship, market censorship and silent repression and threats to writers, journalists and publishers. The issue of neo-censorship will be discussed in four different sessions. Please click here for the programme.
On the eve of the symposium, at the opening ceremony on Thursday September 18th the IPA Freedom to Publish Prize will be presented.
The official language of the symposium is English.
Jenny Saville’s monumental paintings wallow in the glory of expansiveness. Jenny Saville is a real painter’s painter. She constructs painting with the weighty heft of sculpture. Her exaggerated nudes point up, with an agonizing frankness, the disparity between the way women are perceived and the way that they feel about their bodies. One of the most striking aspects of Jenny Saville’s work is the sheer physicality of it. Jenny Saville paints skin with all the subtlety of a Swedish massage; violent, painful, bruising, bone crunching.
The documentary, Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth has six episodes:
* Episode 1: The Hero's Adventure (first broadcast 6/21/1988 on PBS)
About Campbell, hero types, hero deeds, Jesus Christ, the Buddha, movie heroes, Star Wars as a metaphor, an Iroquois story: the refusal of suitors, dragons, dreams and Jungian psychology, “follow your bliss,” consciousness in plants, Gaia, Chartres cathedral, spirituality vs. economics, emerging myths, “Earthrise” as a symbol
* Episode 2: The Message of the Myth (first broadcast 6/22/1988 on PBS)
Creation myths, transcending duality, pairs of opposites, God vs. Nature, sin, morality, participation in sorrow, the Gospel of Thomas, Old Time Religion, computers, religion as “software,” the story of Indra: “What a great boy am I!,” participation in society
* Episode 3: The First Storytellers (first broadcast 6/23/1988 on PBS)
Animal memories, harmonization with body and life-cycle, consciousness vs. its vehicle, killing for food, story: “The Buffalo's Wife,” buffalo massacre, initiation ritual, rituals diminishing, crime increasing, artists, the Shaman, the center of the world
* Episode 4: Sacrifice and Bliss (first broadcast 6/24/1988 on PBS)
Chief Seattle, the sacred Earth, agricultural renewal, human sacrifice, sacrifice of the Mass, transcendence of death, story: “The Green Knight,” societal dictates vs. following bliss, “hidden hands” guiding life's work
* Episode 5: Love and the Goddess (first broadcast 6/25/1988 on PBS)
The Troubadours, Eros, romantic love, Tristan, libido vs. credo, separation from love, Satan, loving your enemy, the Crucifixion as atonement, virgin birth, the story of Isis, Osiris and Horus, the Madonna, the Big Bang, the correlation between the earth or mother Goddess and images of fertility (the sacred feminine).
* Episode 6: Masks of Eternity (first broadcast 6/26/1988 on PBS)
Identifying with the infinite, the circle as a symbol, clowns and masks, epiphanies and James Joyce, artistic arrest, the monstrous as sublime, the dance of Shiva, that which is beyond words.
"Ways of Seeing is the book of a groundbreaking and brilliant TV series that Berger created with Mike Dibb in the 1970s. The book isn't quite as amazing as the series, but it's acquired canonical status anyway as Berger's most frequently set text on art and art criticism. Which is a pity, because while the impressive confidence of Berger's judgments was inspiring back then (Marina Warner and Michael Ondaatje have each paid tribute to it), time has passed over the last quarter of a century and the book is in danger of looking old-fashioned. The theory of desire, which Berger manages to popularise in a single succinct chapter, has been challenged, confirmed, turned upside-down and generally elaborated upon so much since the book was written that his version of it is now inadequate. Advertising is vastly more sophisticated now than it was in 1972 - the ads reproduced in the book, while perfectly representative of their time, are almost laughable in their blatant sexism and classism. (You wouldn't get away with them now, that's for sure.) But the account of the rise of oil painting is still persuasive, even if it lacks the cheek and mischievousness of the TV version. Readers expecting to find Berger's most incisive and complex criticism should look elsewhere, though, to The Sense of Sight or About Looking, because Ways of Seeing is essentially a popularisation of theories that have since become much more complex, and Berger's lapidary, no-argument tone is hardly applicable anymore. Somebody should release the series on video, then we'd get the same ideas in a more engaging and fascinating manner."
Well somebody did. Its on Youtube in 4 parts per episode.
Thanks to "man with a plan" you can see all the videos here.
